Hammer The Hatch

Posted by Dave Jolie on Jan 22nd 2019

If you want to improve as a Flyfisher and bring more fish to the net, you really need to know your bugs, and their life cycles. Mayflies will go from nymphs, emerger, dun, then spinner. Caddis, stoneflies, and midges will go from nymph, pupae, to adult.

Here’s the thing, there is a ton of information on the web that is quite good for identifying hatches, and the specific insect. Troutnut does a real nice job with insect education and great photos of the actual insect.

There are hatch charts for just about every stream out there. All of this is free and ready for you to educate yourself. You want to kick a few rocks and see what the river has to offer. You ever shake some bushes looking for salmonflies? Grab a bug mid-air?

The better you are able to identify the insect on the river, the more fish you’ll catch. There’s really no way around it, and there’s no quick fix. The weather is turning on us and we will be dead into winter. Spend some time doing some research, you won’t regret it. We did a series called “ the insect buffet” a few years ago. It’s a nice starter. It’s a four part series that I think you’ll enjoy, but also, give others a try.

There’s volumes of good information out there. The Handbook of Hatches by David Hughes is quite good as well as The Big Bug book by Paul Weaver. That’s it for now my fishy friends. Please remember, pack it in, pack it out. If you take care of mother nature, she’ll take care of you.

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